Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore   

`Act against erring housing societies'

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Aug. 4. Grahak Shakti, a consumer rights and awareness organisation, has urged the Government to take action against erring co-operative housing societies in Bangalore, which allegedly had taken large sums of money from members on the pretext of allotting sites but had not done so.

Speaking to presspersons here on Sunday, Somashekhar of Grahak Shakti said that the Government was instead targeting the tenant co-partnership housing societies. They were allegedly harassed by officials to pay registration charges to the Government.

Members of the housing societies said that their cases had been reportedly referred to the Lokayukta, and they had been wrongly accused of taking advantage of a lacuna in the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959.

"The Act exempts the registration of shares and debentures issued by co-operative housing societies. A judgement of the Gujarat High Court had in 1980 ruled that housing co-operatives enjoyed exemption from compulsory registration as in the case of joint stock companies," Mr. Somashekar said. The tenant co-partnership societies with limited members were formed to provide apartment-type dwellings to their members and gave occupancy rights as collective owners. They functioned as a single entity even after the building came up. These societies, unlike other housing societies, were of great help to the common man, and were promoting the co-operative movement. These were well-managed and ensured proper tax collection. Therefore, the members should not be harassed unnecessarily, he added.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Illegal house demolished, site recovered
• Check environmental pollution: Nittoor
• Spice offers two more plans
• `Act against erring housing societies'
• Pennywise BMTC creates drought of bus passes
• More facilities, discipline can ease congestion

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu